Quotes About Language

May books spread the world over!

It's an important social duty to spread the word of English to people whose livelihoods depend on knowing the language.

What I want is for people to really grab hold of language and not be nervous about it. 'The Word Spy' is all about diving in and playing with words.

I'm interested in the economy of words and forms: jokes, aphorisms, copywriting, advertising, that way of writing when meaning has to be squeezed into as few words as possible.

St. Louis is a very interesting city in terms of accents.

Here in South Korea, I'm continuing to learn English in order to boost my prospects. When North Korean defectors try to get a job to stabilize their lives, their lack of English is a handicap. It was the same story while I was living in China. It took an enormous amount of time and enthusiasm to learn Chinese.

My name is actually Polish. It's my husband's name. Most people say 'Zaw-stak,' but it's 'Show-stack,' like you're going to a show, eating a stack of pancakes.

How you frame a debate is very important. When you call someone an 'illegal alien,' you've already stacked the deck against them.

I'm reaching a huge audience. I'm doing what artists like Beyonce are doing in terms of selling out stadiums. The difference is my audience speaks Spanish.

In my experience, copy editors, like the stalwart staff I've worked with and learned from in my 34 years at 'TIME,' are linguistic conservatives - the keepers of the flame ignited by the Strunk-White 'Elements of Style,' published in full in 1957 and chosen by 'TIME' as one of the 100 most influential nonfiction books of the past century.

Keeping a bar clean is basic in this business. Having a staff that speaks adequate English is basic.

Shakespeare is the true multicultural author. He exists in all languages. He is put on the stage everywhere. Everyone feels that they are represented by him on the stage.

You know, they were returning to the language of the people and trying to use musical language, particularly as Copland did to create a musical language in which all Americans would feel that they had a stake.

In France, disco was an artistic progression that might not have had the same social stakes. Also, the language barriers - like with hip-hop, in France, the focus is more on the personality, of the flow of the music, rather than the lyrics themselves.

I still have a stammer that I can control by not opening a sentence with a hard consonant, or by concentrating for a moment, breathing softly down. Growing up, the 'Our Father' was lovely, made for me, the 'Hail Mary' was gorgeous, and 'Glory Be to the Father' was an absolute nightmare.

I think, for the English accent, we don't say our Rs, contrary to a standard American accent.

A standard international language should not only be simple, regular, and logical, but also rich and creative.

Black English is simpler than standard English in some ways; for example, it often gets by with just 'be' and drops 'am,' 'is,' and 'are.' That's because black English arose when adult African slaves learned the language.

I think the word 'diverse' is a cancerous word because it's life. It's a PC way of saying 'non-white,' and it ultimately suggests that white is the standard.

All the academy will tell you that the language that is familiar to you is not appropriate. and that's not to say that there shouldn't be a standard, but when I come to school with my friends' language, my grandmother's language, the language in my mouth - you're going to tell me that's improper?

God as 'He,' as a patriarchal thing, is offensive to me. It's standard fare for America, 'He, He, He.' Every time I hear that it's like another blow against females. It's very radical talk at this point for females to say this kind of stuff, but nationwide I still hear females referring to God as 'He.'

You could imagine a language exactly like English except it doesn't have connectives like 'and' that allow you to make longer expressions. An infant learning truncated English would have no idea about this: They would just pick it up as they would standard English.

I'm not very good at standard English.

I tried to write 'Trainspotting' in standard English, but people weren't talking like that.